14 female-founded Scandinavian beauty brands to know

One of Scandinavia’s pride and joy should be the amazing beauty brands the region has harboured and gifted to the world. While there are more female-founded brands that we can physically include in one roundup, Nordic skincare and makeup moguls are known for their excellent quality, performance and pigment. They're also known for their heart, their values and their knack for incorporating our way of life into their products.

In honour of all women in the beauty industry who’ve paved the road for innovation and discovery — here are 14 Nordic female-founded beauty brands to know and support every day.

Founded by Danish-born makeup artist Kirsten Kjaer Weis, the brand mixes Scandinavian minimalism with New York boldness. With strong pigments and products that are meant to last all day, the brand also incorporate Nordic sustainability within their products via refillable compacts that don’t compromise the high-quality ingredients.

Founded in 2015 by Jasmi Bonnén, the Danish skincare brand’s philosophy is to ‘fight for fresh’. This sees all products being freshly blended every 10 to 12 weeks. The brand differentiates itself by providing new batches of compounds that are quickly shipped to retailers in order to avoid long shelf life and ensure high-quality formulations for all consumers.

Born in Copenhagen, Trice Christianse created her skincare company due to her own issues with eczema. Her condition saw her exploring herbal medicine and the healing properties of plants and herbs as practised in traditional Chinese and eastern cultures. This eventually led her to create the now known brand and its iconic oils and creams.

Founded by Danish model Mette Skjaerbaek in 1999, the brand's products are a hybrid of natural, dynamic bioactives and clinically-proven, high performance age-defence extracts. With a simple approach, the label embraces the Scandinavian simplicity for a ‘less is more’ routine.

Norwegian Marina Engervik suffered from extreme eczema as a child which led her to research for a natural cure to her condition. This eventually developed into what she calls the ‘miracle’ oil that brought relief to her problems. According to her brand statements, the oil is a mixture of Nordic and exotic ingredients with the use of advanced probiotics meant to aid the skin.

Founded by Bunnie Gulick, this Norwegian brand produces hand-crafted skincare that is made with wild and organic ingredients. With nutrients kept as intact as possible thanks to a cold-pressing method, the brand aims to saturate each drop of product with the best nature has to offer.

Finnish-born Henua Organics was founded by Jenni Touminen with the intention of creating high-quality products that are completely free of any water or fillers. Nowadays it's a brand that thrives off their Scandinavian principles combined with luxurious, rich products that energise and nourish the skin.

With a single focus on face-oil-serums made with wild arctic botanicals, Laura Heikkilä combines her knowledge as a product developer, marketer and visual designer with her passion for skincare, Finland and plants. She also uses her own skin issues in order to create products that not only help her but also those who need the extra skin nourishment.

Founded by Sóley Elíasdóttir in 2007, her eponymous products take the iconic Icelandic mountain water and combine it with local herbs, oils and ingredients to create a wide variety of products — all encapsulated in environmentally friendly packaging. From face washes to moisturisers and body products, take Iceland home with you.

Sarah Kungelman created Skyn Iceland as a way to treat the damaging effects of stress on the skin with natural, pure ingredients from her home country. From blemish dots to skin oils and serums, now the brand is a staple of Icelandic beauty.

Created by Bianca Ingrosso, Caia cosmetics has taken not only the Scandi skincare market but the whole world by storm since it’s release in 2018. With launches often sold out in hours, the brand offers everything from skincare to fragrances, and is now venturing into more subcategories of the market.

Known and beloved by the whole skincare world, few know that Pixi by Petra is a Swedish brand founded over 20 years ago by makeup artist Petra Strand. Now known for skincare, palettes, creams and pigments, you can always count on Pixi by Petra for a good blush, liquid exfoliation or cut-crease shadow.

Founded in 2007 by Pernilla Rönnberg, Estelle & Thild has positioned itself as the certified organic brand that uses scientific research to develop result-driven products with little environmental impact. With pure bioactive ingredients, the products don't skim on effectiveness or sustainability allowing the brand to reach the heights it's achieved.

Based in Stockholm, Colekt is a skincare and fragrance company founded by Ellen af Petersens and Susanne Vennerstrand. The brand in itself encapsulates everything Scandinavia and represents a conscious approach to sustainability by producing slow, high-quality products meant to last and perform.